Fatal Bullet - An Alternate Novelization
by Just Another Indonesian Writer
Summary: "Gun Gale... Online? Looks pretty retarded, if you ask me." - Kureha invites an old friend to play the newest hit on the Full-Dive Virtual Reality trend: a world filled with guns, but what seems to be a harmless reunion will take them to grounds no one would dare to walk. [An alternate take on the Fatal Bullet game's story, with no Kirito & the original SAO cast]
1. Chapter 1

"Gun Gale... Online?"

The word felt foreign in his tongue, and his dejected stare eyed the rather elaborate colorful poster shown on his lit-up computer screen window. Even from the official poster, he could deduce that the game was already screaming high-octane shooting action, probably with lots of advanced movement system and even more explosion thrown into the mix. A group of five individuals wearing futuristic-ish apparels, brandishing their respective weapons; some seemed to be fairly identical to real modern world firearms, while others looked like their designs were pulled out of a Children's drawing book. Said group was jumping out of an explosion with valiant, courageous looks on their faces. All-and-all, it was a very typical Western action movie imagery.

"Looks pretty retarded, if you ask me," With a sigh, he closed the game's official website and brought back the live, voice-chat that was minimized for the last couple of minutes.

From the other end of a channel, an elongated questioning, feminine noise was made. It sounded like the person behind the voice was rather surprised at his reaction. "Whoa, okay. I didn't expect that reaction," Her voice was both deadpanned and exasperated.

"I... don't know, I'm just not really feeling it," The boy rubbed his temple and his eyebrows rose as he spoke again. "I've seen the gameplay streams a few times, but the game itself isn't really all that appealing to me."

"It's the best-selling shooter currently on the Full-Dive VR Market, though," The girl's reply came fast. "Come on, why won't you try it? The PVE is just as good as other MMOs!"

The boy involuntarily frowned. "It's probably the best-selling shooter on the FDVR because it's the _ONLY_ shooter on the platform," He replied, voice sounding a bit amused at her answer as he ran a hand through his hair. "And it's supposed to be shooter, not an MMO. Blending those two together just really, really don't sit right with me. It looks like it's basically Alfheim but with guns. I mean... A PVE-shooter, really? Everyone knows that PVP is where the real meat is at, none of that grindy-stuff in sight. Come on, Akane, you know me. I'm not into those... Virtual Reality crap, I'm more of a home-console guy."

The girl, identified as Akane was silent for a couple of seconds. "But I thought you like shooters, though. I've played it and the game's as immersive as other console shooters, if not more! Being VR is one thing, but I'm sure you'll get over it after you've experienced the first few hours of the game first hand. The game also has a pretty solid PVP game modes too, it's basically an oversized, respawnable Battle-Royale kinda-thing, you get it? Besides, your PC is pretty beefed up right? And I think you mentioned it before, that your family has recently bought an AmuSphere, so why not try to relax for bit, enjoy life and try something new for once, eh?"

"Overglorified, more like..." He muttered just barely above his breath as a response. keeping it audible for his online conversational partner to hear. "Look, I kinda get what you're trying to say but this is... it's just not my cup of tea. And that AmuSphere, haven't I mentioned it's for my mom's epilepsy rehab? Dad's gonna kill me if I just use it without their permission."

"Ugh, that's troublesome..." Akane groaned. "Don't you have any spare time where you could borrow it for a few hours?"

"Hey, I haven't said that I'll be playing the game. Hell, we don't even have any FDVR games installed in our home."

"Just humor me, for Christ's sake."

It was his time to groan. "...Probably in the weekend, starting from Saturday morning to Sunday evening. My parents have to go to Fukuoka to have my mom have some more direct treatment. Why'd you ask?"

A light snicker was heard from the other end of the line. "Oh, you'll see soon enough."

And sure enough, true to her words, the boy could hear some knocks on their front door, and after some muffled conversations, his name was called down by his mother, currently situated downstairs. After excusing himself from the chat, he made his way down to the living room, and was quickly handed over a rectangular-shaped package. Curious, and now getting more and more suspicious of the package inside it, and considering Akane's rather ambiguous wording earlier, he excused himself back upstairs to open the package in private. Closing the bedroom door behind him and turning on the lights to brighten up his dark room, and with a swift motion to the nearby scissors and cutting it open, his mouth was left slightly agape, and his eyebrows twitched from the contents inside the packaging.

Quickly sitting down and grabbing his earphones, he breathed a loud, wary sigh.

"Happy birthday, Mister Console Peasant," Even just through her voice, he could tell that the girl was smiling, no. Smirking, more like. "Like what you see?"

"Let me make this clear," He spoke very slowly, a tone of caution evident in his speech. "You didn't just buy me Gun Gale Online, and shipped it here, to Saga... in Kyushu, _all the way_ from Tokyo... right?"

The girl let out a mock gasp at his question. "Oh no, nooo, I wouldn't dream of it," Akane's voice was dripping of sarcasm for some reason. "Can you imagine how expensive it'd be to ship, even if it's just a game from Tokyo? No. I just contacted a nearby game store near your house through an online shopping app and have it delivered to your house. Come on, the year is 2025, start living in the present, will you? Oh, and the game's second-hand, by the way."

A palm moved over to smack over his face, and a muffled, disgruntled noise escaped through his lips, even as skeptical as he was, he knew that it was too good to be true for the girl to just buy him a game out of the blue like that. The girl was already strange enough that she was into games in the first place. And it's not just any genre like the more casual puzzle games one could find for free in their smartphone's application marketplace, but downright hardcore shooters. The fact that she's interested shooters was already shocking enough for him, but for her to basically love the genre to death, to the point she memorized basically almost every single shooter games released this decade, is on a whole new level of surprise.

"You're really that desperate for me to play this damn game, huh?"

"Hey, tomorrow's Saturday anyway," She answered dismissively, as if shrugging. "Would it really hurt you to play it? It's not like everyday we get to see an American FDVR getting so much attention here in Japan."

"Well there's always the offhand chance I might actually get hurt, or maybe even literally killed..." He murmured, implying back to the Sword Art Online that'd happened about two years ago, where the original creator of the Full-Dive system and its catalyst, the NerveGear as well as the main developer of the game that killed well over four thousand gamers, both young and old, during the span of the game's life cycle, by frying their brains using the hardware he created himself if they die in the game.

"The AmuSphere isn't like that, though. That's purely because of the hardware. I'm pretty sure that if SAO launched today with the AmuSpehere technology, we won't be seeing the Death Game that was," Akane replied, her voice sounding pensive for once. "If I recall correctly there's already even a literal copy of SAO, just... without the frying brains stuff. Sword Art: Origins, I think is the name."

A pair of eyebrows rose again. "One hell of a way to trigger peoples' PTSD..." He mused.

"Yeah. I heard the game isn't doing well, anyway," Akane said to his spoken thoughts. "But that's beside the point! Thing is, the game's safe now, okay? So, won't you play with me? Come onnn, I'll personally teach you the basics of the game. Just for old time's sake... I mean, we can finally get together again, even if it's just through VR..." She trailed off at the end, voice going smaller and genuinely hesitant to continue almost like a thought was plaguing her mind.

The boy kept his silence, and he broke his eye contact from the computer screen and back to the boxed game on his hand. Her voice carried the truth, though. It has been years since he last saw his childhood friend. Practically stayed and played together, almost as if the both of them are glued to each other since birth, thanks to the close relations between their respective parents. But due to the issues that rose within Akane's family, despite not being a major one, she had to move to Tokyo by the third grade of Elementary, and things've been going like that since then. The only thing that connected them together was the occasional live voice calls they usually have during spare times. That, or the more convenient instant-messaging chats.

Feeling that his silence seemed too prolonged, he thought that he should give her his answer. "...Well, I can't really say no after all that hassle you went through..." His throat finally produced a mock, tired-defeated voice. "I'll see if I can't borrow my mom's AmuSphere for tomorrow."

"Really? You actually mean it?" She quickly asked back, sounding a tad bit too excited. "I mean... uh, then you can install the game right now and let the updates download 'till morning. I'll be online at about ten A.M., how's that sound?"

The boy rolled his eyes. "No promises. But sure, if I can hook it up, I think I can make it in ten."

"Nice!" Akane cheered, her loud voice blared through the boy's earphones, making him flinch by a bit. "I'll be waiting! If you've managed to get on first, just send me a message or an invite to an avatar ID named Kureha. That's me, and I'll be sure to respond in about five-to-ten minutes."

"Sure, sure," The boy nodded a few times, despite knowing that Akane couldn't really see his reaction through a voice call. "...Well, it's already late. So I'll... see you tomorrow, I guess?"

"Sure," She repeated his response. "Remember, I'll be waiting for you, alright?"

"Yeah..." He trailed off, his lips slowing turning up to form a tiny smile, ever so slightly. Her excitement seemed to be contagious to him. "And Akane?"

She made a curious tone.

"Thanks for the gift, I guess..." He scratched the back of his neck. " _Somehow_ you're the only person who remembered my birthday," His voice was quiet, but sincere. "I mean, yeah. It was a pretty crappy gift, but it's the thought that counts."

Akane then made a dissatisfied noise and blew more air through her nose. "Sh-shut up!" She stammered lightly. "Your birthday was literally on the wall of your old social media page anyway, and I stumbled across it a few days back. Friends gotta always remember friends, right?"

"...Right," With that answer, he settled that he was satisfied with her response with another one of his small smiles. "I'll be... looking forward to meet you, then... Kureha."

* * *

 **Fatal Bullet**

 **An Alternate Novelization**

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

As the summary suggests, this is my own take on the Fatal Bullet story. Now, I've played the game, and while not far into the story yet, despite the more deeper focus into the story, I can still very much see the SAO vibes it gave me. To be honest, I don't like the SAO franchise THAT much. I think the Aincrad arc was okay, but everything else afterwards just stopped me from watching it further. Despite that, seeing how the new Fatal Bullet game tried to focus more on the original story characters, and the fact that I'm told this game is basically an anime version of Destiny-slash-The Division, I was pretty hyped. Sadly I was a tad bit disappointed at how dependent it is to Kirito and the original gang. It's almost as if the developers isn't willing to let the new characters shine with this new game, despite them being actually pretty interesting had the game shifted its focus more on just the new cast. But sadly this wasn't the case.

And even then, the gameplay itself is pretty meh. Painfully so, even. It's leaps and bounds better than the older SAO games, but in my own opinion, Fatal Bullet isn't that anime love child of Destiny and The Division. But that's as far as I rant. Wouldn't want to spoil you guys the story if you haven't played it yet, or are still interested in the plot to know what's going on. But back to the point, this is supposed to be Fatal Bullet but with some differences here and there. The major one being I won't be inserting any of the original SAO cast into this story, at least, the novel/anime cast. I might just still incline to insert a few of the new original game-universe characters (Philia, Strea and etc) in the future though, but this isn't final yet, since the story will focus more on your player character and the new original in-game cast. Just an added note, I'll be naming a few characters that was only known by their avatar's name in the game. I'm not planning to give the player character a name though. At least, a real world name.

The story will also be more 'gamer-centric' too, so expect a lot of game-talks and what not, for we're supposed to be seeing this story from the perspective of two gamer friends anyway (which is also sadly isn't explored further in the game's story).

Well that's it for the info I guess. This is the first time I'm back to writing fiction in years now, so, sorry if you didn't enjoy what I created, or if I did some mistakes that lead you to conclude that my writing won't do the game's story any justice.

Traesto.


	2. Chapter 2

If the boy was being honest, he wasn't sure when he first put on the AmuSphere on his head. The device's metal contraptions felt cold and unwelcoming, despite being made with ease of use and long-term comfortable use in mind. He laid still on his bed, waiting for the slowly-filling loading bar on the top right of the supposed Heads Up Display of his newly-borrowed gaming platform. Well, not really. Since the games have to run through his Personal Computer first before being transmitted through the device. He exhaled a long breath of wariness, and was starting to develop second thoughts about playing the game altogether.

But alas, a rather high-pitched notification noise chirped from the AmuSphere's built-in speakers. Shortly after, multiple tables and graphs appeared on the screen, surprising the new player ever so slightly. But the most prominent one was the notification box overlaying everything that seemed to be monitoring his heart-rate and blood pressure. It was a pop-up, or more like... a warning to the user, considering how the letters inside the text-box was written in big, blocky capital letters that overshadowed every single statistical data behind it.

* * *

 **DIFFERENCE IN BRAINWAVE LENGTH AND PHYSIOLOGICAL STATE FROM DEFAULT USER DETECTED.**

 **REGISTER AS A NEW USER?**

* * *

He blinked, before realizing that the device may be just referring to the only other individual that used the device regularly, his mother, who was absent from the boy's abode and was already on her way to Fukuoka along with his father. Thinking back, he still couldn't believe his own luck that his parents just let him use the AmuSphere without protest, despite him being honest with the device's usage was to play an online game with his old friend. Still, despite the obvious choice presented before him by the Full-Dive gaming system's interface, he wasn't sure about the next step he was supposed to take.

He wondered if the AmuSphere was waiting for some sort of input.

"Uh... yes?" He tried pathetically, his voice sounded weak and unsure of his own words.

Fortunately, that input seemed to work, as the pop-up screen disappeared, and he was presented with a new pop-up screen.

* * *

 **NEW USER REGISTERED AS HOMEUSER-02.**

 **WELCOME TO AMUSPHERE - OPERATING SYSTEM VER. 1.034 (BETA)**

 **REGISTER NEW USER AS DEFAULT?**

* * *

"No."

The machine once again chirped in confirmation of his choice. Kicking out his own sickly mother from the device was surely an unwise decision that he's sure he would come to regret in the future. She was already kind enough to keep the device up to date with the most recent software updates, too, since most common folk would just care less about the software the AmuSphere uses. The pop-up overlay once again disappeared, and he was then finally presented on the current monitor of his blood pressure and heart rate. From his own observations, everything seemed normal for an average young adult in his early twenties like him.

A small warning did pop up on the far-right of the screen, basically just stating that in events of an emergency, like the device detecting a sudden, significant drop in the user's brain activity, or in one's heart-rate and/or blood-pressure, the device's failsafe system would automatically log the user out from whatever they're doing. The boy's eyes blinked. For a simple, supposed gaming device, the AmuSphere sure did take that extra step in providing the best health and safety measures in their own gear. After a quick read-through of the warning, he dismissed the information elsewhere into the depths of his brain.

The time display on the device told him that it was 09:30 in the morning. Ample time for him to probably orient himself into the new game he was about to play. Speaking of the game, Gun Gale Online along with its updates was already installed in his Personal Computer and was already primed on the device, proven by the AmuSphere's OS detecting the installed FDVR game on his computer. The device was simply waiting for the user's input to commence a Full Dive by that point.

Only thing is, he didn't know what to say to boot the game.

"Uh... play?"

Nothing happened.

"Start the game?"

He was still staring at his own ceiling through the rose-tinted glasses of the device.

"Commence Full Dive, please? Open Sesame? Will you please, start, up, the damn, game, you piece of, rusting, crap?"

Getting increasingly agitated, he quickly reached for the phone by his nightstand and did a quick search through the internet for the AmuSphere's activation sequence. After a swift sift through the gaming pages, he found out that the device still used basically the same voice command as the old NerveGear system. A rather bold and controversial move he might say so himself, but he didn't really mind it, and so did millions of other active players in the world, so he was more than willing to give this a pass. He needed to start up the game anyway.

Pushing down the last amount of hesitation with an audible gulp of his saliva down his throat, the boy breathed one last breath of self-confirmation before speaking.

"Link-Start."

Instantly, he felt like he was being pulled into a white void, with all of the former external stimuli he felt, like the soft fabric of his clothes and the squishiness of his own bed gone and replaced. His senses was already being taken over by the device, and while he still had reservations when he saw that the AmuSphere was loading up a checklist of his active senses, all of them seemed to fade away when he felt his body was slowing down, and on the front of his eyes, he was greeted by another notification box, while still being stylized in the device's font, he knew well that he was already in the game.

For he was staring at the welcoming worlds to the world of guns.

* * *

 **WELCOME TO GUN GALE ONLINE!**

 **NO SAVE FILE DETECTED.**

 **CREATE NEW USER & SAVE FILE?**

* * *

It was pretty underwhelming to say the least, when he realized he was just staring at a system message as a greeting to a supposedly multi-billion dollar FDVR game. But a single confirmation of a _'yes'_ , dismissed such thoughts, and he was presented with the choice to make his own avatar. Two randomized figures of different gender stood before him. A boy and a girl of an average height, wearing a very basic-looking clothes of the game. Without much thought, he chose the option of his own gender. And the camera zoomed into the male character with a randomized appearance.

One thing he should note, that the figures seemed to be already rendered in-engine. To which he wasn't really impressed with, considering Full Dive VR was supposed to reflect real life to begin with. The character he was editing right now looked very... digitized, and very... gamey, almost as if its skin was made out of a cheap plastic toy material. Still, to say that the graphic was bad would be a lie. But at the same time, saying that the FDVR games looked like real-life was a complete overstatement. Virtual Reality simply just couldn't handle that much data compared to more streamlined home-console games, even in 2025.

He would still have to give credit where credit's due, though. For he was now freely sculpting his character's base appearance to his own liking, and the customization is quite phenomenal. With simple swipes and pinches of his ethereal-like hands, he could craft pretty much any kind of human-like appearance within the creation engine, just like one would shape a clay pot or a statue in real life. He respected the game already giving him that much freedom of choice to his character creation, since most multiplayer games in general would simply just lock the more advanced customization options until late-game, or unless they pay a sum amount of money to unlock that feature.

The boy wasn't sure how much time has passed since he first starting to let his imagination run wild. But in the end, he simply opted his avatar to be modeled after... himself, even down to his physical height and his approximate weight. After a while, he thought that shaping a model character would be fun, like in most other character creation, having the chance to just play as... simply yourself was of extreme rarity. And in a game where people would most likely want to stand out as a perfect take of an ideal character, seeing an average-joe model really wouldn't hurt anyone. Using one's appearance may even just be the best natural camouflage in a world filled with fake representation of one's self.

He wasn't aiming to become a top player anyway. One whose name would show up on the leaderboards for everyone to see, and for every single gaming sponsors to give him a taste of all the VIP passes they're willing to offer. For a person who rather loathed the idea of appearing in the main screen of streaming sites, staying incognito as a casual player seemed to be a best way to go. All his years gaming, he never really thought about going hardcore or into Major League Gaming. He stayed small, and would rather end the experience staying small.

He was now looking at a young male, whose appearance seemed to be the perfect definition of being forgettable. A very average build, with slightly below average height for his age, with black hair and dark brown eyes, and a seemingly apathetic expression donning his face as a part of an expression test. Said male was wearing a white over short-sleeved shirt, an underneath that layer of cloth was a reflective-blue colored metal plating, as his pants were a pair of black military leggings and an all-weather boots. A very... basic set of clothing that led him to believe that this was supposed to be everyone's starting clothes when they first enter the game.

After accepting the character's appearance, and the acknowledgement that he could change his appearance later in the game (though this would cost some in-game currency), he finally arrived in the last section of the character creation phase.

The naming section.

This time, the boy thought maybe a bit longer than he might's hoped. While his real life appearance would just work as a part of his plan to just blend in and disappear within the crowd, using his real-life name would prove to be fatal for him. Looking at all the suggestions, he was given eccentric, flashy, Western action-hero names. Like BomberZR, ExceederXZ, FreedomR1, DragonShooter, Dish0nored, and all that elaborate usernames. He groaned at the suggested options. For him, using a rather neutral name that wouldn't attract much attention to himself, something... empty.

"Nanashi..." Was the word that left his lips without much thought in the process.

Nanashi.

Anonymous.

Nameless.

That seemed just about perfect.

And once again, it seemed luck sided on his side, for that simple username was available for him to use. Quite shocking, considering the rather common use of such terms. He simply thought that everyone might just wanted to be noticed in their own unique way. And so, being literally nameless within the vast majority of gamers, ready to prove themselves to the world was quite unappealing for most people. He was just fortunate enough not being like most people. Finalizing his options, his surroundings was finally once again shrouded in a blinding light.

It was time to play.

* * *

Emerging out of the main portal of the ruins of the **_[SBC Glocken]_** was Nanashi, who was just about done shielding his eyes with his now existent, manifested hand. He was quick to take note that his surroundings had suddenly just became more... vibrant with color, yet at the same time, had this rusting dystopian atmosphere. Before him was long, road of stone and metal, with towering buildings coated with neon lights as far as his eye could see. He could feel the desert, polluted winds blowing against his skin. It felt rough, but it felt real.

All around him, stood players that continued to appear and disappear through the portal, and the many shops and buildings dotting the landscape around him. And just as he suspected, all of them were dressed in their own unique, vibrant ways. Their high-tech sets of clothes and armors seemed very uimmersive to the depressing vibe the game's setting gave him. But the most prominent thing that he could see, was that these players carry one single thing that made the game what it was.

Guns. Lots of them. _TONS_ of them.

People holding guns.

People playing with their guns.

People cleaning and repairing their guns.

People playfully pointing their guns at other players.

The amount of firearms exhibited around him was just astounding. It's almost as is every single person carried a different weapon. From old-rusty looking bolt-action rifles, to what looked like a railgun of some sorts, the game was in no shortage of firepower one could carry with them around the premises. A new, curious sight to behold indeed. He was almost tempted to try and check his own inventory to see if the game was generous enough to give him a starting weapon, or maybe some other rewards or boosters as a newbie of the game, if he knew how to open the menu, that is.

"Oh, hey! There you are!"

A rather familiar feminine voice caught his attention, as he snapped his attention from the multiple players around him, and refocused onto a single girl of an average height and slightly athletic build. Said girl's appearance was not much different than other players. Just as eccentric, and maybe even more so. With bubblegum, bright pink hair that was tied to a single side-tail to her right, a pair of bright, crystalline blue eyes. The girl's attire consisted of a white, black, and pink. Said pink was in the similar shade to her bright hair. It was emphasized that her clothes were made for the ease-of-movement, seeing how he failed to see any kind of desirable amount of protection. Heck, from appearance alone, he would argue that his starting gear carried more armor than hers.

While he wouldn't recognize the girl's appearance, he would know her voice anywhere.

"Aka..." He stopped himself from saying her name further, and opted to close his mouth again before changing it into a simple: "...Kureha."

The girl was only slightly surprised when he tried to call her with her real name, but was left with a satisfied grin when he corrected himself. "Personal information, mister, you'd do well not to spoil it to anyone," She reminded him with a friendly smile, to which he was glad that she didn't seem to take it to heart. "Finally, it's about time you logged on! It's already 10:34 A.M., did you really spend thirty minutes on the character creation screen?"

Nanashi didn't expect that he was that long in the menu, but he responded to her chiding with a shrug. "Well... I tried to log on early at 9:30... so technically it took me an hour."

Kureha's eyebrows rose in amusement. "You spent an entire hour just to create a character that..." She shuffled closer to her childhood friend. "...that basically looks exactly like you in real life?"

Nanashi, once again, simply shrugged.

The pink-haired girl sighed. "At least you're not crazy enough to name your avatar your real name, because I'd spot that gloomy vibes that you face gives away from a mile. But either way, welcome to **_[Gun Gale Online]_**! It's good to finally meet with you again face to face after all of these years!" She spoke in excitement, whilst sweeping her hands dramatically to her sides, showing off the streets of **_[SBC Glocken]_** with pride.

Kureha could see her longtime friend's lips slowly forming a smile, one that she just realized, she missed dearly after not being able to directly interact with him for such a long time. "I wish the circumstances could be better so that we don't have to rely on a second-hand VR game to finally talk to each other face-to-face. But yeah, it's really been a while. Great to see you still in high spirits, at least."

"Hey, at least I gave it to you for free," She defended, crossing her arms with an eyebrow arched upwards. "So, as our first time Full-Diving, what'd you think of the game, eh? Looks cool, right, right?"

"...Well, certainly everyone looks really edgy and out of place, that's for starters..." He mumbled, once again letting his eyes roam to the people around them. To think that the game could load these many interactions and inputs without any noticeable lag was already an achievement enough for him. "And for the game itself... well... while the Full-Dive System seems to be working just as intended here, I can't say that the game's graphics are living up to the hype I've set for this game. At least after experiencing it first-hand."

Kureha gave a long questioning " _Haaaaa?_ " before continuing. "Whad'ya mean the graphics aren't up to your standards? It looks real fine and crisp to me!"

"I mean... it looks like it's made from Unreal Engine..." He trailed off.

"Well, it IS made in Unreal Engine, though..." The pink haired player supplemented with a quizzed expression.

"...Four. I mean, Unreal Engine Four," Nanashi finished, his head shaking. "The textures look real rough and aged on some parts. I could cut this game some slack for being a VR, but it's 2025 for God's sake. The draw distance to that... Citadel thingy up there," He pointed towards the sharp-looking tower located at the heart of the **_[Glocken]_** to emphasize his argument. "It's abysmal. I can't even see the textures loading from here. For a Western game, the engine's sure isn't optimized that well."

Kureha just stared at him with a strange look. "Still a cynical asshole as ever, huh?" She placed her hands on her hips. "You know well that GGO is basically just developed because of **_[The Seed]_** 's coding. The developers only changed the settings and made some few tweaks here and there to the engine."

"Talk about lazy game design..."

Nanashi then could feel himself getting softly elbowed on his chest, the perpetrator being none other than his childhood friend. Kureha was still flashing that toothy smile that was like a trademark of hers since they were little. If he was anyone else, Kureha would probably be annoyed out of her mind at how antagonizing his stance was towards her current favorite game, but Nanashi was a special case. He was, and still is her childhood friend after all, one that she grew too attached - _in a platonic way_ \- to just simply hate him.

"Hey, that's enough of that, alright?" She curled her hand towards her as she started to walk away, gesturing him to follow her. "I invited you to play this game to have fun, not to mull over the insignificant details. So we're gonna do just that."

Nanashi made a questioning noise through his throat, but he followed her anyway. "Can't we just starts from the literal basics first? Like the lore of the game, or how do one open the menu... you know."

"No time! There's a PVP tournament with a rare loot on the line, I can just run you through all the game's mechanics while we participate. Now come on, the registration period will end soon!"

Nanashi was quiet for a few seconds, trying to digest the words that she just said, until he finally came up with a response.

"...Wait, what?"

* * *

 **Fatal Bullet**

 **An Alternate Novelization**


	3. Chapter 3

As skeptic as Nanashi was to the Full-Dive System, and despite the very game-y and in-engine every avatar and texture looked inside the game he was playing, he had to admit, that he was more than impressed at the display of technology offered by the seemingly simple piece of gaming hardware that was the AmuSphere. He knew that in real life, he was just probably laying still, maybe even almost unconscious, as all of his senses were taken over by the VR platform. He knew that he should at least still feel the soft cushion that was his mattress and his simple pajamas that clothed him back in his room, and for the record, he could still feel those just at the back of his head, probably just because the AmuSphere couldn't totally lock out all external stimuli.

But he would be lying that being inside **_[Gun Gale Online]_** wasn't immersive. During his short walk back to the teleporter to transfer both him and his recently reunited friend to the **_[PvP Lobby]_** , his brain managed to slow down from all of his near-frantic rant just a few minutes ago. Now, he would only feel the busy atmosphere from the upper and lower streets of the game's main hub world, the **_[SBC Glocken]_** , the dusty winds occasionally blowing and touching his skin ever so slightly every once in a while, all the sounds coming from every activity near their location like when players talked to one another and checking their guns out, with all their volumes already adjusted accordingly to the distance between them. And he could feel his feet thumping lightly and his body shaking with every step he took on the metal floor as well as his hands clenching into fists, just to test whether the Full-Dive really did work.

Less to say, he was satisfied with the results, for no other VR gaming platforms could achieve this degree of immersion unlike the Full-Dive System.

And the one thing he couldn't take for granted was none other than-

"Still, I'm surprised you managed to know it was me back then, considering how different my avatar looked to my IRL appearance," That same bubbly voice he'd heard for the many years of his life tried to grab his wandering his attention again. " _Heyy_ , Earth to Nanashi, you hear me?"

Nanashi's eyes blinked as his composure surged back, and his head turned to face his longtime friend, expression slightly surprised but overall neutral.

Yes, it was none other than being able to hear her voice once more, with crystal clear quality that one would never get from simple voice calls. Her voice sounded real, her movements looked real, even if it's just through the lens of the game, he would never trade off the chance of finally meeting his friend face-to-face again after all the years they'd been separated from each other. He could just reach out and touch her, the girl was just within his arm's reach. But his own morals and ethics code knew better. Even if it was just a friendly jest by grabbing her shoulder, he was still touching a woman without consent. And considering how Kureha could be somewhat volatile at times-

"Oi, Nanashi, you're zoning out," Kureha waved her hand a few times over the male's eyes, with the pink-haired gamer now frowning. "You're not already AFK on your first five minutes into the game, aren't you?"

Nanashi scoffed at her question. "'Course not. I was listening," Defended the boy with an indifferent shrug. "Yeah, I was a bit surprised too, but not so much at least. Your loud voice is hard voice is hard to miss, and considering how much you love the color red in real life, I've figured you'd also at least try and have your avatar colored in a similar shade. I only didn't expect you to be so... pink."

"Hey, it runs in the name, remember?" She gave him a light smirk.

Kureha.

Crimson Flower.

Fiery Steel.

Quite fitting, considering her real life nature and probably the symbolism behind the username, but at the same time not really due to fact her avatar seemed to be everything _but_ crimson. Still, he was just as surprised that she was able to get that ID, considering the common use of such name in normal everyday context. In the end, he shrugged off the thought. Nanashi was a pretty common name to begin with anyway.

"But I guess, yeah... you really have changed your looks in this game," He gave her a long analytical gaze, with no indication of an emerging expression within his tone of voice.

Kureha, unnerved by the stare quickly looked away, swiftly turning so that her back would face the boy instead. "Hey, quit staring will you? It's making me uncomfortable," Her voice was small and meek, unlike her usual cheery one, the pink-haired was getting increasingly self-conscious of her own avatar's appearance by the minute.

"Well," Nanashi continued with a huft, a dismissive grin, and a shrug. "Knowing that you're a short, fat slob IRL, I'm pretty shocked that you've made-"

The boy could feel a sudden pressure on his chest that pushed him a few steps backwards. Despite not being able to feel actual pain inside the game, he could feel some of his oxygen getting burst back out into the open, a courtesy from a harsh shoulder nudge from his friend. The blow was so hard that his health bar suddenly popped on screen on the lower right hand corner of the Heads Up Display, and right above said bar, was a blinking purple hexagon icon with the words ' **IMMORTAL OBJECT** ' blinking alongside it. He would guess that a status effect was currently active on him after receiving the blow from kureha. Players wouldn't actually receive damage when they're inside the hub, but that hit was enough to bring him into an auto-invulnerable state.

"...Hey, what's the big idea-" Nanashi was about to protest, but when he raised his face, he could see the face of his friend, who looked rather genuinely angry at his last comment, he slammed his mouth shut. "...Sorry."

Kureha herself just sighed, and felt somewhat guilty at her own actions. She did say that they were supposed to have some fun, but her hands just moved at an instinct. "No, no, it's alright, I'm sorry too, you see," She rubbed the back of her head.

Nanashi's mouth formed a thin line, not giving her much of a hint on what he's trying to express. "Let's just get this out of the way, and give me an info dump will you? How the hell do you open up your menu? Wouldn't want to enter a Battle Royale without knowing the damn basics first now, would we?"

The pink-haired blinked twice, but just nodded. Nanashi wasn't the type of guy who would take anything deep to heart. "Well, opening up the menu is actually pretty simple. Just raise your right hand up to your face and then swipe from left to right. That's supposed to be the basic starting gesture."

The boy listened to her guidance without protest, and so he lifted his dominant arm and brought it near his face, just before his eyes. He would then conduct a quick swipe with said hand, and not a second later, the sounds of something digital erupted within his ears. His vision of his surroundings was blurred and darkened slightly to turn his focus away from the other players and to the new popups emerging within his vision. Said popups looked more like a system's settings of the game with multiple tabs waiting to be opened. Nanashi also took note that his hearing was considerably muffled, probably for the same reason as the vision-blur-out.

 **STATUS / INVENTORY**

 **SKILLS**

 **MESSAGES**

 **FRIENDS / SQUAD**

 **SETTINGS**

"Whoa, okay... what do I do now?" He spoke aloud, quite unsure as his fingers just left hovering above the tabs of his menu.

"From there on, everything is like handling your usual smartphone," Kureha stepped in, just near enough so that Nanashi could still hear what she has to say. "Everything within the menu is a basically touch-sensitive. Don't worry, that menu is only visible to your eyes, and your eyes only, so no one's gonna be peeking at your items. Unless you've agreed to do an inventory share with a member of your **_[Squad]_** , then they would have limited access to your inventory screen. But other than that, even your friends can't see what's within your menu. Speaking of which, you should probably check out your inventory first."

Obeying her suggestion, Nanahi's index finger slowly touched the **STATUS / INVENTORY** tab, and a water-like ripple was sent outwards, distorting the old screen before loading up the new one. Nanashi's eyes were then met with a mannequin projection of himself along with the other information that indicated his level and stats. **STR** , **DEX** , **VIT** , **INT** , **AGI** , **LCK** _,_ all those general RPG-like stats, with their numbers being set to the lowest single digit possible - 1. On his right was the inventory and equipment management screen. Without pause, Nanashi's eyes darted to the two items already sitting inside the inventory box, probably a gift from the game for the newcomer.

An **_[Old Battle-Worn M1911]_** , a **_[Ballistic Pistol]_** class weapon, with its description reading, ' _A semi-automatic handgun that is also a relic from the old wars long past, battered and worn to a near broken state, but still usable, and in the right hands might also become a reliable partner to start with_ '. The gun has no stat requirements to wield, but the game sure really did try their best to make the handgun look as unappealing as possible. With terrible damage, fire rate, and range, and not to mention the all the rusting textures on the gun's metal surface and even some pieces of cloth to hold the pistol's slide together, acting as some sort of a makeshift repair attempt. He could see why the game designer would choose the ancient American handgun as a starting weapon, although the firearm did deserve better.

Beside the pistol was a very... generous amount of 4000x **_[.45 ACP]_** , and a short description that read ' _.45 Automatic Colt Pistol, small but powerful handgun-purpose cartridges used in several **[Ballistic Pistols]** , and **[Ballistic Submachine Guns]**_ '. From there, the equipping process of said items was pretty simplistic, just a simple touch-and-drag to the empty equipment slots, even the ammunition are instantly equipped without the need to manually load them into the slot. He'd noticed several extra slots for extra equipment like headgear, armor, hand and legging accessories, meaning one could seamlessly blend in additional accessories with their outfits.

Nanashi was a bit curious on the **SKILLS** tab of the menu, but he figured that he could save it for later, knowing that he was still at level one, he probably wouldn't have any skills yet.

Closing down the menu was fortunately pretty simple as well, with a single click on the large red ' **X** ' on top right corner of the display, the popup window vanished, restoring his senses. The new player blinked a few times, and his right hand unconsciously moved to his right waist, trying to reach something out of reflex. Reaching the supposed location, his fingers felt something, that while angular, was also quite rough on its surface. In one motion, he pulled out a single piece of weapon that he'd just equipped, before proceeding to just quietly stare at the firearm on his fingers, ignoring the uncertain glance Kureha was giving him throughout.

Holding a firearm, despite just being in a video game felt both very right.

But at the same time somewhat wrong to him.

Yet, he couldn't exactly pinpoint the reason why.

"Damn..." Nanashi's mouth finally speak out his opinion, deciding to ignore his earlier thoughts. "Are the devs _that_ desperate to make this gun purposely abysmal?"

Kureha sighed. Ever since they're young, Nanashi's face was always stiff and for the most part unreadable to her. "Hey, the M1911 is a pretty decent starter, the game's already generous enough to give you a gun that fires a forty-five Colt, I'll take it over any newbie-tier nine millimeter handguns."

Nanashi lifted his head to look at the girl. "You sure know what you're talking about..." Whether that was an offhanded compliment or a sarcastic response, Kureha couldn't quite discern. "But yeah, I guess this works. What's the idea about the free four-thousand rounds, though? Isn't this like... a bit overkill?"

"Oh, boy. You should probably know that in GGO, enough is never enough," Kureha's mood shifted back to its brighter side as the words left her mouth. "You'll burn through ammo like crazy here. To me, four-thousand rounds' just barely enough to get you over your first few days here. From then on, you'd have to buy your own ammo. And those things don't come off cheap, so again, generous offer by the admins, I'd say," Shrugged the girl with the bubblegum-colored hair. "Anyway... you know how to use a gun, right?"

The edges of her friend's lips were tugged slightly upwards, giving her the impression that he was sending her a smug grin. "Oh, please. I may be new, but I've played enough shooters to know the most important basics," He lifted his handgun, with Kureha quickly noticing that his index finger wasn't resting on the firearm's trigger, showing that the boy knew of gun-safety regulations in real life. His left arm then promptly moved over to the slide of the M1911, before firmly gripping it and pulling it to cock it with ease, proven by the gun's response by sliding its intricate mechanism backwards, allowing the first round from the gun's magazine to be loaded into the chamber, before racking itself closed with a satisfying ' _click_ '.

After finishing such procedure, he then lifted and retracted the both of his eyebrows a few times, saying an unspoken dialogue within the lines of ' _How's that?_ ' to the girl.

To which the girl whistled, more or less impressed at his performance. "Not bad. At least you know how to handle your gun. I swear I've seen some newbies getting confused even when following the tutorial... speaking of which, you did that on your own, right? Like... without the help of a tutorial?" She gave him a look. "Oh yeah, I should probably also tell you that within the **_[Glocken]_** , we're basically in a **_[Safe Area]_**. So don't be surprised when you see your loaded gun still giving out an ' _Out of Ammo_ ' warning. It's not a glitch, don't worry."

"If there's even a tutorial, I haven't seen any," Nanashi shrugged.

"Oh yeah, I just remembered that gun tutorials only show up when you first enter a **_[Field]_**. Although with you already knowing the basics, I think you've already bypassed some of the popups you'll be seeing later," Kureha mused. "But eh, the tutorials aren't that intrusive to your HUD. You'll get used to the popups soon enough. So, any questions? The tournament'll start soon, so we'd best get hurry."

Nanashi gave a single nod. "Actually, yeah, I have a quick one."

"Sure. Fire away. Pun kinda intended."

The boy rolled his eyes. "Back in the menu, I've seen the game referring to this gun as a **_[Ballistic Pistol]_**. Why's that? I mean, why don't just classify it as a normal pistol instead? Just give me a quick run-through exposition."

"Ohh, right..." Kureha voiced a knowing sound. "Well, in case you forgot, GGO's setting is... pretty far into the future. You've seen it before, haven't you? Those quirky, futuristic-looking guns some players hold in the trailers and posters?" A nod was her response. "Long story short, in this game, there's a lot of **_[Weapon Classes]_** , although players tend to only categorize it into only two major trees. **_[Ballistic]_** and **_[Energy]_** weaponry. From here, it's pretty self-explanatory, [Ballistic Weapons] fire off physical bullets. Most of them hit-scan, some of them projectiles, and they're based of real life weapons, as you can already tell," She pointed towards Nanashi's weapon. "Now ** _[Energy Weapons]_** are pretty much the same as **_[Ballistics]_** , but they fire... well... energy rounds. Like lasers and beams and ion torpedoes or what not. Some of their design cues are actually taken directly from real-life prototypes, although most of them are original in-game assets. Get the gist?"

"Kinda... I do remember seeing some edgy weapons back on the game's website. They sure didn't resemble any real-life firearms. Any interesting **_[Weapon Class]_** I should know about?"

Kureha hummed thoughtfully, trying to remember all the information she'd gotten from playing the game. "If I recall correctly... aside from guns, there's also **_[Melee Weapons]_** , but they're not exactly popular. You know the saying, _never bring a knife to a gunfight_ yada yada yada. I _DO_ sometimes see some players running around with a **_[Photon Sword]_** , a subclass of the melee tree. Though... very rarely, of course."

Nanashi nodded in finality, satisfied with her given answer.

"Now we've got that out of the way, you ready for the tournament yet?" She stopped her walk, with Nanashi following her actions. The two once again standing before a teleport-gate.

"Hell no," Nanashi grunted. "I mean, I haven't even got through my first half-an-hour here yet, but we're already springing into PvP? Let's not forget this is also my first time going into Full-Dive. I still need to orient myself with all of these... movement."

Kureha waved a wave of dismissal. "Aww, someone's already getting cold-feet? Didn't you say it yourself that _PvP is the real meat of shooters_?" She did some air quotations just to emphasize.

"Well, literally everyone would be getting cold-feet if they're just suddenly thrown into a competitive matchmaking with other players... whose levels are much higher than ours," Nanashi glared at his friend.

" _Relaaax_ , Nanashi, we're not here to fight other players, we're just participating for the loot! Might even earn you a head start with some nifty new weapons or equipment you can use," The pink-haired sighed, repeatedly patting the back of the male gamer. "And during tournaments like these, all of the players' weapons and level are scaled down to the same margin, giving everyone a fair playing field. Your handgun would be just as deadly as other weapons, and most likely, more than enough to get you through the session. Heck, we'll avoid any engagements if that's gonna help you to calm down."

Nanashi's head slightly cocked itself to the side, his eyebrows rose in a quizzical manner. "Well... yeah, but even a level one **_[Minigun]_** is still a **_[Minigun]_** , same goes for an **_[RPG]_** or something. And last time I checked, even in VR, getting riddled with bullets or blown to smithereens isn't exactly healthy for your avatar's well-being."

"Ehhh... point-taken," Kureha nodded numbly at his argument.

" _Point-taken_? So you _DO_ agree with all the potential hazards," Nanashi half-protested. "Yet we're still gonna go in anyway?"

Kureha shrugged for the umpteenth time that day. "It's the learning experience that matters, sooner or later I know you'll want to dive into PvP anyway, so why not do it sooner rather than later?"

Nanashi was silenced for once. Despite the simple answer, she did deliver her point.

"Don't worry, I'll also walk you through the tournament, and it's not like we're gonna get penalized if we fail anyway, so no harm done to us," She flashed a simple but reassuring smile. "After that, I'll tour you around **_[Glocken]_** , and I promise I'll be giving you all the info dump you'll need regarding the game. How's that sound?"

The male shook his head. "Let's just make it quick... I'm really not in the mood to be versing other players this early into the game."

"That's the spirit, come on, let's go! The lobby's getting filled up by the second. Gotta get ourselves registered before it's too late!" She pulled him by his wrist towards the teleporter.

Entering the transportation device, Nanashi could feel his vision going white for a few seconds, blinding him of all of his surroundings. Although, all the way through the gate, he could still feel Kureha's strong grip on his wrist. Normally he would protest, but he welcomed the gesture without protest, and also with the fear of suddenly losing his only guide to the game. Surprisingly, the new area loaded in pretty quickly, as his eyes regained their bearings and they quickly refocused on a new view to greet him. Metal walls clad in a pale-green color, and the sounds of numerous heavy footsteps as well as weapon checks. This gave him a very... barracks-y feel. He concluded that they were already inside the **_[PvP Lobby]_**.

Players already armored up and doing a final maintenance before the tournament.

Players consulting each other for the most effective strategy and any info leaks regarding the loot inside.

Players completing transactions with what seemed like automated vendors within the lobby.

Players exchanging small talks to each other in a friendly but professional manner, despite most of them deciding to mind for themselves.

And... players flocking around another, single player near the teleporter, all while cheering on his supposed avatar's username...?

Nanashi did a double take on the last bit of info that got through his Heads Up Display, and his eyes didn't betray him. He did just see a group of other female players crowding on one spot, basically blocking a single, tall male avatar with sleek, black-to-near purple hair that was stylized like it's being swept backwards by a non-existent wind. His attire looked just as out of place as other player characters, with a flashy protective jacket colored in white but with some black and orange streaks on its shoulders, and a pair of dark blue military pants and black boots to cover his legs. Like Kureha's outfit, this one player seemed to forgo overall protection for more freedom-of-movement. Said male player looked like he was a bit overwhelmed by the barrage of praises coming from the other randoms, but did try his best to maintain a plain but sincere smile.

The boy then shook his hand free from Kureha's grip by giving it a light swing, this gained the girl's attention.

"Does this... happen often?" Nanashi curled an index finger outwards to point at the surrounded gamer. "Like... who that?" He spoke with purposely incorrect grammar.

The pinkette traced her friend's finger to the general direction he was pointing at, her eyes then slowly widen, only mildly surprised after seeing the other player. "That... that's Itsuki, one of the top PvP players currently on the game!"

Nanashi felt the sudden urge to roll his eyes again. "Oh great. Now we're up against an _actual_ pro..." He muttered. "Great job on picking the lobby, by the way," Said the boy with his voice full of sarcasm.

"H-hey, it wasn't my fault, the game just connected us to a random server through matchmaking!" Kureha countered, crossing her arms but now getting increasingly anxious at the presence of the other player.

Their argument seemed to gain some attention from a few other players, but the most of them just downright ignored the commotion. What they didn't notice, however, was that their voices also caught the attention of Itsuki, who just broke free from the multitude of questions he'd been given. His eyes glittered with curiosity and amusement as he watched the two players continued their somewhat petty bickering. Against his better judgement, the male player's feet carried him over to the two, and despite his ever approaching figure, his presence was not noticed by the two partners, at least, not until he was well-within both their eye and ear-shot.

"Yo," Itsuki tried to grab their attention, his soft voice slightly raised in volume to beat theirs. "Is there something the matter?"

His attempt worked, seeing how the other players stopped whatever they were doing and started to look at him instead with varying degrees of response. Kureha's shock could be seen plain as day through her facial expression and her body posture that was slightly leaning to her back after the initial recoil, while Nanashi simply just let his eyebrows rise, silently questioning the purpose of his sudden interruption. Not that he didn't welcome it, but most players tend to ignore one another, especially when they're preparing for a competitive match mostly in fear of getting their privacy or maybe their tactics leaked to others. But Itsuki didn't seem to look like he was trying any of the sort. If anything he was trying to break up the budding-up fight out of his own goodwill.

"Ah, Itsuki-san!" Kureha's defensive posture relaxed. "What brings you here?"

Itsuki merely gave a light chuckle at her question. "Ah, it's nothing major, I'm just curious to see a rather lively pair in the **_[PvP Lobby]_** , it's rare to see them these days..."

"Curious enough for you to just... approach two random strangers?" Nanashi asked, with no ill intent judging from his neutral tone of voice. "No offense, but I don't really see you doing this on a whim."

The other male shifted his glance to the newbie. "Oh, but I am," Itsuki answer truthfully. "It's usually just your everyday flat-faced, silent players keeping to themselves, so finally seeing a change of scenery for once is refreshing," He gave him a smile. "And... actually I know your partner," His eyes shifted back to Kureha, who jumped at his proclamation. "Kureha-san, was it? I think I've seen your name as a member of multiple **_[Squadrons]_** before ** _._**.. forgive me if I'm wrong, but is it really you?"

The girl tried to reply back but stumbled over her first few words. "N-no, you're right! I'm actually surprised you even know of me!" She bashfully answered after a few failed attempts of producing coherent words.

Nanashi hummed. "Huh... looks like someone's famous."

"Oh, yes," Itsuki agreed with Nanashi's not-so-serious comment. "Kureha-san over here has actually made a name for herself. Jumping from **_[Squadrons]_** to **_[Squadrons]_** , but leaving with a positive track record every time... but anyway," He assumed a more laid back position, with his shoulder slouching slightly backwards before looking at Nanashi once more. "I think this is the first time I've ever met you... and you seem pretty close with Kureha-san over here, pray tell, do you two know each other?"

"I only joined them during a few raids for the loot," Kureha swiftly provided her input. "Nothing too serious to note, actually... but yeah! This here's my friend IRL and we go _waaayyy_ back, his username here is Nanashi. He actually just started playing the game!"

Nanashi gave a nod to confirm his friend's words. "Or rather _forced_ to start playing the game..." He mumbled, loud enough for the two other players to hear. "But yeah. Nice... to meet you, I guess?" His statement ended with a questioning tone, feeling the awkwardness rising between the three.

Itsuki's mouth soundlessly formed an ' _O_ '. "I see... a newbie already participating in a PvP competitive tournament? I understand that this is basically just a free-for-all lootfest... but quite a daring display, if I may say so myself," He mused with a rather different tone from his usual soft one, but still of courtesy and politeness. "But considering you're with Kureha-san right here, I think you're already in good hands, Nanashi-san. And yes, it's a pleasure to be acquainted with you as well."

"Well, I didn't really have a say in this..." He threw a glare at his longtime friend, to which she felt the sudden unfriendly gaze planted upon her, she simply glared back. "So yeah, if I die during the match, then I'll know who to blame for it-"

His line was silenced midway by another rough nudge from Kureha's elbow. " _Either waaayyy..._ " She forcibly let herself between the two males, cutting into their exchange. "I'll be guiding him through the match, but he's a pro in console shooters. I'm sure he'll do just fine in here!"

Itsuki blinked twice, simply out of amusement. "Ah... a gamer but from another platform..." He trailed off before continuing. "Well, I'd like to welcome you to **_[Gun Gale Online]_** , then. I hope you enjoy your stay here," The veteran male player then looked over his shoulder to the announcement screen that was already displaying a countdown for the match. "Well, it looks like the match is about to start," He noted audibly, turning away from the two friends. "I suppose I'll see you two on the battlefield, then. May the best players win," And with one final nod of farewell, Itsuki was already on his way to his own destination.

Kureha quietly watched the other male march off. "Consider yourself lucky, eh? Being able to talk to one of the vets of the game within your first hour here."

Nanashi shrugged. "Eh... not anything to write home about."

The pinkette eyebrows frowned, her bright blue eyes narrowing slightly. " _Nothing to write home about_? Players would kill to even have a chance to talk to Itsuki-san right there!"

"It's basically like meeting someone new in real life... big deal," The boy sighed. "So, are we doing this or what? Match's about to start."

"Oh yeah!" Kureha clapped her hands together. "Alright, remember, we're just here for the loot. We can just turn tails if we ever spot other players lurking around. Or better yet, let them kill each other before we sweep in for the prize."

Nanashi bopped his head up and down at the explained tactics they'd be following. "Just like your typical Battle Royale killstealer play style. Sounds like a plan."

"Alrighty, then! Sweet, sweet loot awaits! _Lessgooo!_ "

* * *

 **Fatal Bullet**

 **An Alternate Novelization**

* * *

 **Author's Notes** :

Info dump after info dump and more exposition. Yeah. Bad writing, I know.

Oh yeah, first change from the game. The player character now receives a much crappier gun from the game as a starting weapon, and first encounter with Itsuki is revised a bit.


	4. Chapter 4

With the blinding light around him dissipating, Nanashi found himself looking at more of the same flat, rusting brown textures of the supposed arena he would be fighting on. Before his eyes, however, was a simple tall pair of steel door, that protected whatever loot waiting on the other side to be plundered, at the same time, giving him protection from the dangers that surely await. Feeling his anxiety and paranoia slowly rising, the boy autonomously reached for the sidearm that was his M1911 from its holster. Feeling the rough metal surface of his weapon did give him a sense of comfort, if only a little, and with a single motion, his fingers wrapped themselves around the grip of the handgun and pulled out the **_[Ballistic Pistol]_**.

"Relax, Nanashi, you're freaking out," As if trying to break him out of his stupor, a voice reached his ears.

Turning his gaze over his shoulder, the boy could see his pink-haired longtime friend and his supposed partner for the now-ongoing battle standing a few feet behind him, a somewhat amused expression plastered over her face. She was standing at a slouched angle, with one of her hand was lazily placed on her waist while her other dominant one was sporting what it seemed to be a customized first-generation **_[Uzi]_** submachine gun. Said Israeli-manufactured firearm was sporting a plain tan finish without any noticeable camouflage patterns, but it did feature some black patterns on the gun's extended stock and grip. The weapon also seemed to be carrying a longer magazine to hold more bullets within it.

Not wanting to let Kureha have the upper hand, Nanashi dismissed her earlier claims with a shoving wave to no one in particular. "...Well, look at you, Missus _Space Gangsta_ , don't go mugging people and breaking into houses now," He mocked a Southern American accent as he said that, making exaggerated gang signs with his hands as he said that. "Didn't think you'd be using an SMG of all weapons."

At first, the pinkette looked at him strangely, but alas Kureha responded with a: "This baby's one of the most cheapest weapons around, and it's highly customizable. Considering the nature of the game, this gun's perfect for me."

Speaking of weapons, Nanashi looked back down to inspect his own, and to his slight surprise, the handgun was unloaded; with a ' _RELOAD_ ' sign flashing over the gun's surface and also at the ammo counter, now visible beside his health bar. Slightly confused, he tried to reach to his left back pocket for more cartridges, thinking that the game would handle the retrieval of a fresh magazine. This ended in failure. Then he tried tapping his own chest to see if there was any breast pocket to store the much-needed ammunition. Once again, there were none. All the while, Kureha was spectating her friend with a knowing smirk, as if waiting for an inevitable question to come.

"How the hell do you reload your stuff in this game, for Christ's sake..." Nanashi mumbled, still fumbling to himself in confusion and frustration over his predicament, with his speech directed at the air and sounded more like a statement than anything else.

Kureha's eyebrows rose, the question didn't come, but she did receive the audible gesture for help. She internally shrugged before speaking out. "Oi, to reload your gun-" She cut herself midway, waiting for an appropriate response to come from the boy. Nanashi slowly broke his focus from the troubles he were in and back to the pinkette. "-You just have to spin it like this," She finally continued, lifting her personal **_[Uzi]_** up over her shoulder before twirling her finger over the trigger, bringing the submachine gun to a full spin. As it did so, a blue light coated the gun and several clicking noises similar to a magazine getting inserted and the firearm being cocked and primed sounded off, when the rotation was complete, so was the reloading process.

Proud with her own results, Kureha kept a smug look over her partner.

"See? It's just simple as... that..."

She trailed off the moment her bright cyan eyes landed upon the pained look of Nanashi, the boy looked like he was trying his best not to cringe, complete with his left hand brought up to pink the bridge of his nose. He then shook his head several times.

"You... spin your gun, to reload?" His voice was low, and sounded like his patience was being tested by something.

Kureha's emotion now entered a cautious state. "Er... yeah, what I said just now," She confirmed with a slow nod.

A few more seconds of silence passed between them, before the new player finally breathed out a long, troubled sigh.

"...That's honestly the stupidest shit I've ever come to witness in a video game, literally, ever," His statement was flat, blunt, and straight to the point.

Kureha recoiled at the given response, slightly hurt by his words. "Whoa, okay, chill. That was a bit uncalled for..." Her voice dropped somewhat.

The boy frowned for a couple more moments, before spinning his own M1911, completing his own reload cycle and afterwards racking his slide backwards and pushing the hammer down to prime the first bullet into the chamber. "Well... I guess it works..." He grumbled whilst also glaring at the sidearm with a dejected look. "But for a game that's aiming for immersion, this stuff's hella edgy... like, can't one simply reload like... you know a normal human being?" As the question left his mouth, Nanashi also realized that his first person Heads Up Display now sported a constantly enlarging and enclosing circle on the middle of his screen. Less to say that was greatly distracting. "And the hell's with this little circle thingy on my HUD?"

"That's the ** _[Bullet Circle]_** , think of it as your crosshairs. it appears when your finger is on the trigger when aiming and/or firing from the hip, your shots will land on a random place within the circle. The calmer you are, the smaller the circle will get. Of course, that circle disappears whenever your aim down your sights."

The new player shook his head with a long and heavy sigh. "Talk about unfriendly UI..." His head spun around, testing his own senses to the new combat display. "Yo this is hella dumb, I mean, these mechanics are just straight up elementary-streamlined," Complained the boy, lifting his M1911, bringing it up to his face before rotating it into a forty-five degree angle, the boy then curled his shoulders inward, pulling the gun closer for him to aim down the sights with his left eye. "You know what? Forget it, let's just go... we're already wasting enough time idling at the starting position, right?"

Just now, Nanashi realized that even holding the gun still felt a little... off. Despite not being a gun nut, at least probably not as much as his long time friend and current partner, his common sense told him that the sidearm should at least feel a little more weighty. He could feel the coarse and rough rusting metal of the gun's surface, he would even support the argument that the game nailed the sense of the M1911 being manufactured from iron and steel, old ones at that, but the weight of the _**[Ballistic Pistol]**_ was comparable to one of those cheap plastic toys bought for a reasonable price from your local Chinese hobby stores. The gun was _unnaturally_ light. The same could probably be said for Kureha's **_[Uzi]_** , as even for a girl athletic as she was, twirling a Submachine Gun of that size, with only one hand, no less, was no easy feat. He thought that it was probably done to streamline the game's mechanics.

Just like the other seemingly off-putting ones. For the game's target audiences was to be those who are within the adolescence age. And he couldn't really picture a 13 year-old to hold up a Light Machine Gun, not with their IRL physique at least.

Kureha's body shifted slightly, inwardly sighing, her friend clearly didn't look like he was enjoying the process one bit. Her blue eyes numbly trailing the newbie who was already advancing towards the gigantic steel door cautiously with his eyes already liddled halfway closed. She realized that it was part of her fault for forcing him to jump right into a PvP battle royale without letting him get used to the basics first, that, and GGO did feature some in-game mechanics that were pretty... unique, if one was lacking for a better term. She would argue that they were simplified by Zaskar, the American Company behind the game's development, but even then some of them were still downright strange for an FPS game.

The use of an ever constantly pulsing _**[Bullet Circle]**_ instead of the much more widely used and accepted static crosshairs, spinning your gun to reload, and the toned down weight as well as recoil of the guns. Even to the point that the pinkette would sometimes be left wanting after she fired many of the game's featured weapons. Her own **_[Uzi]_** was of no exception. As much as she loved the gun's adaptability and reliability, she wouldn't lie that her gun just didn't have the same kind of impact compared to firing an actual Submachine Gun in full-auto. Heck, she was already internally preparing herself for the next complain the boy was sure to give out about his M1911's recoil.

In the end, the girl blinked her eyes a few times, feeling that her continued train of thought has led her mind astray from their original objective. And so, she followed her friend, readying her own firearm in the process,

Noticing the presence of players approaching the door, the game's detection system automatically slid the gigantic door open for them, to which this surprised Nanashi somewhat, but this surprise seemed to turn into one of shock and a bit of fear when his eyes picked up several tall humanoid figures standing behind the gate. And while they didn't look exactly like players, considering their inhumanely long and slim limbs, their metal-composed bodies, and their rigid, almost robotic walk cycle, the fact that they carried very real and very dangerous looking firearms of their own set multiple alarm bells off within Nanashi's mind. His panic only amplified when he realized that he was standing in the open with no available cover. After snapping out of his stupor, the boy immediately jumped back a few feet, the grip on his gun noticeably shaking and his _**[Bullet Circle]**_ enlarging by a large margin due to his panicked state.

"Yo, what the hell are those things?! They be players or something? Did they see us?"

Kureha's cyan eyes widened slightly, somewhat amused by her normally composed friend to act a bit uncharacteristically scared. She would do well to save and store this memory within her brain.

She couldn't even stop herself from letting out a stifled snort. " _Pft_ , relax, Nanashi, they're just bots," Marching towards him, she gave the shaken boy a few pats on the back. "I think I forgot to mention that in this PvP loot-fest, the game has included several combat NPCs we could battle with. To be honest... I'm not really sure why they've decided to put them here myself, but hey, gunning them down earns you extra **_[Credits]_**."

Nanashi peered his head over his shoulder to take in all the information, but he was still unsure. They could clearly see the bots clear as day, even from meters away, and logically, if they can see them, so could the enemy. Interestingly, they seemed to be docile, maybe even neutral towards their presence, proven by their lack of action, and in fact, the bots in question, being named **_[Barrage Automatons]_** mostly just stood there waiting and some carried on with their set patrol routes with no care in the world, all of them still brandishing their futuristic-looking firearms of unknown origins but with the barrels lowered and pointing to the ground.

"Ahh, so it's these guys..." Kureha nodded in understanding when she scanned room. She quickly counted about four of those bots just standing and patrolling idly. "Don't worry about 'em, Nanashi, these are the **_[Barrage Automatons]_** , arguably the weakest enemies in the game, probably even weaker than the mobs from the normal newbie area around **_[Glocken]_**. Their **_[Energy Weapons]_** deal horrible damage, and also have horrible defenses to boot. They also have horrible detection range of just a meter or two, maybe even less. You can shoot and kill one of 'em right now, and the others wouldn't probably even take notice." She then gave the gesture for her friend to try his sidearm out. "Here, I'll take point."

The prove her claims, Kureha walked forward until she reached the next room containing the enemy bots with her own gun lowered, the girl donning a rather confident, if not, smug look on he face. True enough, none of the enemies seemed to care at her armed presence, even with the girl standing dangerously close to them.

"See? They're practically brain-dead!" She yelled from the next room, again receiving no response from the **_[Barrage Automatons]_** despite her loud voice. "Or maybe it's... artificial-intelligence-dead... I don't know!"

Nanashi rolled his eyes, but made no further response, he would just pretend that he didn't hear that. The boy then also stepped into the next section of the area, his weapon readied and trailed on one of the bots, once again entering the strange stance of aiming down the sights of his M1911's barrel rotated on a 45 degree angle. With the enemy in question still made no response towards its incoming doom, Nanashi held his breath in as he pulled the trigger. The area was then blanketed in an echo of a large explosive ' _BANG_ ', followed by a much smaller ' _ping_ ' courtesy of Nanashi's M1911 catapulting one of its **_[.45 ACP]_** bullets and ejecting a single casing to the cold metal floor, the barrel of his sidearm only slightly going upwards from the recoil before returning to its original position.

The result of this shot was near instant.

The next thing Nanashi saw after the boy recovered from the arguably tiny recoil, moderate amount of muzzle flash, and the loud noise that continued to ring in his ears for the next couple of seconds, was witnessing one of the **_[Barrage Automatons]_** with a new, smoking red hole on its faceplate, the NPC slowly twitched, the grip strength on its weapon slowly loosening before completely leaving it, as his metallic legs also wouldn't comply to its commands. The bot dropped its weapon first, then proceeded to unceremoniously fall face-first to hit the ground with a dull but still echoing ' _thud_ '. Its body remained there for a few more seconds before it was engulfed by a bright white light, and then ending with a harmless explosion of pixels. And so, the enemy was no more.

Nanashi just stood there, both amazed and slightly disturbed with his sidearm's response and the enemy's death, which looked rather horrifyingly akin to a human would react when shot. The pace of his breathing was still rather rushed after the sudden adrenaline surge to help him brace the recoil. His composure then returned almost instantly when he remembered that there were still some threats within the premises. His gun immediately snapped to the next closest target to him, but the boy was left slightly quizzed when he saw that the other enemy he was aiming at, or rather, every single NPC didn't seem to react to his earlier murder of their kind, true to Kureha's words regarding their horrible detection range.

Meanwhile, Kureha just stayed there with her **_[Uzi]_** left hanging low, and her other hand placed on her waist. The pinkette simply watched the whole thing with mild amusement.

With no words exchanged, Nanashi quickly fired a few rounds towards the **_[Barrage Automatons]_** in rapid but controlled succession, with most of them succumbing to a single well-placed shot in their face plate, while the other one took two shots on its metallic torso before it systems overloaded from the damage and simply dropped down dead, all of them disappearing into nothingness in the same fashion as the earlier one. The process was rather hasty and the boy found himself already somewhat getting used to the recoil of his sidearm after the first shot he gave. Of course, the process was still new to him, and he ended up missing some of his shots and ultimately expending the whole 9-round magazine of his gun just to kill the rest of the three bots.

Ending his rampage of killing brain dead NPCs, Nanashi twirled his gun to initiate the reload process, inserting a fresh new clip into the empty chamber, all while the barrel was still smoking due to the heat exerted from repeated use.

He heard a clap coming from none other than his childhood friend.

"Amazing..." Kureha mocked a sarcastic gasp. "Your skills to execute four completely harmless level one robots was just simply remarkable..."

"Kiss my ass," Nanashi retorted, glaring at the pinkette who was still teasing him, but then he found himself running out of witty comebacks. What Kureha said still holds the truth.

Finishing a light teasing giggle, Kureha observed the now empty room, devoid of all enemies. "But in all honesty, not bad, mister _John Wick_. At least you know how to handle your gun, most first timers would just fumble with their shots, even with the toned down recoil."

"I guess the recoil wasn't enough to compromise a player's accuracy when they're aiming down sights," Nanashi shrugged. "And that wasn't even a recoil, the kick on this thing was as tiny as like... one of those light-gun shooters you'd find in classic arcades."

Kureha grunted, while she felt a bit proud with her intuition, hearing him complain would still be rather discouraging. "Streamlined controls, you know the drill by now. But either way, let's go! Loot's not gonna find themselves!" She turned around to look for the door that would lead them to the next room. And by said door was a rectangular box with its lid glowing orange. Kureha's eyes slightly lit up at the sight. "Speaking of loot..." She pointed an index finger towards the box.

Nanashi followed the finger, landing on the same object his friend'd just witnessed. "Is that... supposed to be a **_[Treasure Chest]_**?"

"Close, but not quite. **_[Bullet Boxes]_** , you can use 'em to, obviously, replenish your ammo pool on-the-go," Kureha, ever the information-spewing and helpful friend, explained to the boy. "These things are usually rare in the field and/or dungeons, so passing up would be your worst decision for the week."

The new player slightly turned his head to the side. "Yo, I have four thousand rounds sitting in my inventory, I think I won't be needing extra ammo for the time being."

"Just grab 'em, ammo pools don't exactly have a maximum capacity, and ammo boxes could also fill up more ammo types regardless of whether you have the weapon or not. Why not, right?"

The boy eyed his friend a bit strangely. "...You sure you don't want them instead? I'm still set for days with these rounds."

Kureha shrugged, a dry smile slowly forming on her face. As irritating her friend was, he was at least considerate enough to offer her. "If you're insisting, at least we can share. So have at 'em! No time to idle around, chop chop!" She gave a few nudges to her friend to advance.

Nanashi couldn't really say anything as he was basically dragged towards the **_[Bullet Box]_**. When they reached the desired location, Nanashi contemplated his next course of action, but he started by raising his left, free arm, and spreading his hand into an open palm over the surface of the box. Surprisingly, this gesture worked, and the team of two player could hear the box's mechanism whirring and grinding at each other. This continued for a few moments before the contraption's lid slid open, revealing a few ammo boxes inside. The rest of the process was automatically done by the game, as the rounds inside were immediately transferred to the boy's inventory.

He then received a small, maybe even tiny - compared to his ammo pool, amount of fifty **_[9x19 Parabellum]_** rounds, with the description reading ' _Also known as 9mm Luger, the 9x19 stands as the most used handgun cartridge in the modern world. True to its title, this cartridge can be used on many **[Ballistic Pistols]** , **[Ballistic Submachine Guns]** , **[Ballistic Personal Defense Weapons]** , and even some **[Ballistic Assault Rifles]**._' Nanashi would consider these rounds to be rather basic and would obviously under perform when compared to his **_[.45 ACP]_**. But considering the versatile and widespread nature of the former, the boy was certain that the 9mm could do him some good in the very near future.

Next up on the loot list was another fifty rounds of **_[.45 ACP]_** , adding to his already massive ammo pool. But then, he also got twenty-five rounds of ** _[FN 5.7x28mm]_** , a description then elaborated ' _Simply known as the Five-Seven, with a relatively large caliber size and a sharp-nosed tip, the round has made itself known as one of the deadliest proven cartridges to be introduced in modern history. This cartridge is extremely limited in production and is only usable by a literal handful of **[Ballistic Pistols]** , **[Ballistic Submachine Guns]** , **[Ballistic Personal Defense Weapons]** , and **[Ballistic Assault Rifles]**._' The description-slash-trivia caught Nanashi a bit off guard. He knew of the weapons mentioned in the description, but only now he knew of the power offered by the cartridge and their weapons. The low drop numbers meant that the cartridge was probably a rare find.

Nanashi unconsciously nodded his head twice. Their first plunder for the day, and luck was seemingly on their side for now. Finishing his inspection, he turned to Kureha, who was already midway opening the door to the next area, and he was quick to join her.

With the door opening, their eyes were then greeted by the sight of yet another room, this one being decorated in uneven ground, some tall sheets of metal dotting some strategic corners of the room. And like the room they were just at, this one was occupied, unfortunately, by actual, active enemy players. Nanashi could even count that there were three of them, all of them wearing some kind of a simple olive-green military jacket that didn't seem to be armored, in fact, the only semblance of protection they had was the silver face-plate that didn't offer much protection from gunfire either. The three players stood at about ten meters away from them, and at an elevated position by the two-meter high platform.

Both sides had their eyes widened, like deer caught in the headlights, but Kureha's instinct was the one who took the first initiative. With her brain already processing all the needed information regarding the terrain they would be engaging on, she pushed herself and her friend to the nearest available cover with a hard nudge from her shoulder, all the while, her right hand was wildly firing at the general directions of the enemy players.

Nanashi could register that his back was hit by a considerable force that pushed him down and sliding behind what it seemed to be a steel divider. He could also hear several unintelligible, but definitely panicked yelps coming from the enemy team when he noticed Kureha was spraying her weapons at them. Regaining his senses, there was a plethora of gunfire all around him, with so many bullets whipping past by and over his head, and Kureha blindly returning fire over the cover they were in, he couldn't even discern whether they were receiving single-shots or fully-automatic fire. His adrenaline once again kicked in, but this time, probably a bit too much, as his **_[Bullet Circle]_** was pulsing rampantly, and his hands shaking almost uncontrollably.

"Oi, Nanashi!" Kureha called out, finishing with her salvo of bullets and reloading her weapon as she did. "You okay there?!"

The boy refocused his eyes to the girl beside him. "I... I guess!" He cried back, trying to beat the hectic volume from all the rattling noises that were produced from the enemies' guns. "Jesus, we're being suppressed aren't we?!"

The pinkette could be visibly seen gritting her teeth as another bullet whizzed pass, nearly scoring a head shot that would immediately put her out of the game. "Kinda, yeah!" She tried to peek back up, only to cower back down as soon as her cyan eyes was met with several red lines. "Three dudes, they don't seem to be high-level players, but they're packing heat, and they have the high ground!"

"Got any ideas, then?!"

"Got one, actually!" She pointed to another nearby cover just about two meters away from them. "We gotta move from cover to cover, if possible, maybe even take these guys out in the process! Since our weapons aren't exactly designed for mid-range combat, we're gonna have to move from cover to cover! I'll take point and also provide suppressing fire with my weapon, you then move in, see if you can't fire off a potshot or two at them while they're distracted! Keep moving and don't stop firing, if you don't see any **_[Bullet Lines]_** on you, then you're good!"

Nanashi sputtered over his words for a few split seconds. " _ **[Bullet Lines]**_?! What the hell are those things now?!"

"Red lines that- argh, you'll know it when you see it!" Kureha half-yelled, getting increasingly frustrated from the constant incoming fire. "I'll go first, now!"

With that declaration, and a hearty scream of defiance, the pinkette dashed out of cover, still going full-auto with her Submachine Gun, peppering the enemy team with a hail of 9mm bullets, whilst also sprinting to a new cover. Almost instantly, Nanashi peeked out of the divider, to see that two of the three players ducking to avoid the gunfire, but one still brave enough to return fire towards his friend. Not wasting the current pause from the enemy salvo,the boy also jogged from the cover he was in, his M1911 however, still trained on the other enemy that was still not taking cover, despite the muffled yells from his other teammates to do so. Nanashi put several pressure on the trigger, his handgun responding by firing a few rounds at said enemy players, he could count one, two, three, four shots, all of them missing and not getting any feedback from the player. Some would guess that it was due to the range between them. Despite having an effective range of fifty meters, the M1911 was still but only a sidearm, and landing shots on a target well over seven meters proved to be challenging for the new player.

Without much thought, he then untwist gun arm and switched his stance into a more common one, with the barrel of the gun extended and the shooter aiming down the sights with his right eye instead, the orientation of the handgun itself no longer turned in a forty-five degree angle. The boy then pressed the trigger as fast as his index finger allowed him to, expending the rest of the five rounds left in the magazine. Five powerful thundery cracks sounded off rapidly, and within the next millisecond, five bullets were travelling in high speed towards their target. The player took notice of the [Bullet Line] embedded on his face just a bit too little too late, as while two bullets simply whizzed pass harmlessly, one seemed to struck directly on his throat, one managed to puncture his cheekbone through his faceplate as he turned to face his assailant, and the final one planted itself deep within his forehead when he fully faced the boy.

The reaction was immediate. His eyes grew white in shock as his body began to be engulfed in the same bright light that seem to always shroud every object in the state of being destroyed or entering their deaths. Not a second later, his whole body dissipated into shards of pixels being launched into all directions. It all happened so fast for all who witnessed it. Even Kureha had to do a double take at the sudden death of her opponent. Her cyan eyes traveled towards her friend who'd just finished inserting a fresh clip into the now hungry magazine that was his M1911 via the twirling process of his weapon. The boy himself looked like he was still in that same adrenaline overload from before.

"Nanashi, the hell are you doing?!" The pinkette shouted from her newly-found shelter. "Get yourself into cover, now!"

As soon as she said that, two of the other enemy players popped out from their own concealment, and their guns already brandished, and ready to fire towards Nanashi's figure who just stood there in the open. Multiple red lines were instantly formed, trailing from the enemies' barrels right towards the newp player's torso, and the rest happened in such a blur. Within his adrenaline-frenzied state, he could hear Kureha's voice, most certainly ordering him to do something, he wanted to listen, but his blood and muscles, pumped with adrenal fluids refused to listen. And instead, they became greedy for more action to satisfy his instinct's needs. The boy was moving automatically, with every semblance of logic seemingly left him all at once.

He could feel the kick of his M1911 as he poured more rounds into the general direction of the other players, he could feel his avatar getting shot at with every vibration that erupted on his skin whenever the bullets made contact with his torso. And he could see the edges of his vision reddening, until finally graying, and all of his strength leaving him as his avatar slowly tumbled towards the ground after receiving one too many shots. When Nanashi regained some control - or the lack of it - over his body, he realized that his avatar has already met its demise. His body's function seemed to decline any input from his muscles, and he felt his face slamming against the floor as all of his vision was turned into simply a blur of black and white, and all of his other senses were numbed.

It didn't take a genius to realize that he has met his first death inside the game.

First came the realization, then came the panic that his death within the game would somehow transfer to his real, defenseless body left at his own home. But then, came yet another realization.

On the center of his screen, the words ' _DOWNED - WAITING FOR REVIVAL_ ' continuously flashed, and Nanashi himself, even at his miserable state, could still make out some of things happening all around him. Sounds of muffled but constant gunfire, followed by an explosion ensued. The carnage didn't simply just stop to mourn for his loss. But after more passing seconds, that seemingly turned into minutes, there was just silence - probably signifying the end of their engagement with the enemy. Following that, Nanashi could hear sounds of muted footsteps quickly approaching his location. There was some other sounds of a high-pitched chime going louder - and louder - and louder - and louder by the second.

And suddenly, all of his senses returned. Color came back to his vision, his ear canals no longer looked like they were blocked by something, and everything once again sounded crisp and clear. Nanashi deduced his motoric functions had also worked again, and his hypotheses was confirmed with his body finally responding to his commands to move. His dark brown eyes then looked upwards to face his savior, seeing an exasperated looking Kureha, her own health bar already dipped halfway into the yellow, nearly orange portion. She was carrying a different weapon now, a short, but relatively large blue and white tube, resembling a rocket launcher of sorts, although not from real life designs.

"You okay, there, Nanashi?" The pinkette gave him a wry grin that's not exactly indicating a good sign as she helped her friend back up to his feet. "Sheesh, I have to waste a rocket just for these two guys..." Mumbled the girl, storing her launcher elsewhere for her own **_[Uzi]_**.

As soon as his legs regained their strength, Nanashi stood back up on his own, politely declining the offer from his longtime friend with a simple wave, his eyes scanning their now clear surroundings, no other players were in sight. "Okay, what... the hell happened? Didn't I die just now? I half-expected to be spawned back at the barracks or something, or... you know, get killed in real life."

Kureha sighed. "You were **_[Downed]_**. Anyone who's not killed by a head shot enters a **_[Downed]_** state. You can get revived if there's a nearby friendly player to help you, of course, this doesn't work on solo plays. If you get killed while gaming on solo, or got a bullet in your head, it's instantly game over for you. So you got lucky back then. You also die when all of your **_[Squadron]_** members or all friendly players left or are also killed. The guy you capped just now, you actually scored a head shot on him," She marched onward to the nearby door that led them to the next area, only stopping and glancing back at her teammate, flashing a grin to him. "...Not bad."

Nanashi was yet again quiet. All the things that happened to him in the short span of just a few minutes playing actual PvP content was terrifying, genuinely so. But it was also... exhilarating. He'd never imagine going full ballistic on his senses would be so surprisingly cathartic. As unsatisfying the gunfight felt, it was still an interesting experience for the boy. But he said nothing, reloaded his M1911, and pressed forward with the pinkette, the two occasionally helping each other up to climb the elevated platforms. So far into their ventures, they'd found nothing but extra munitions. Nanashi took back his earlier monologue of having fortune siding with them.

It was a long empty corridor that simply served as a bridge to the next set of rooms, and so the two advanced with Kureha getting noticeably more agitated with their lack of good loot about seven minutes into the match. With the deadline soon approaching, they would probably need to quicken their pace to clear out the rooms. With the steel door sliding open, they were greeted with yet another empty one, but this time, occupied... by none other than Itsuki, who was accompanied by another male player - probably a member of his own party, that both noticed Nanashi and Kureha's arrival. The latter team immediately entered yet another alarmed state, with Nanashi quietly cursing their luck, while Kureha slowly gaining instances of panic within her gestures.

"Oh great..." Nanashi muttered in a monotone annoyance to his longtime friend. " _Jusstttt_... _great_..."

"Well, well, I didn't think we would cross paths this late into the match," Itsuki cried, his posture relaxed, but at the same time looked ready to jump at the two newcomers at a moment's notice. His companion shared the same gesture, but with his weapon drawn at them. "Color me surprised. And forgive me for the thought, but I had the hunch that you two wouldn't make it this far," Even then, he still maintained the same politeness he'd shown them a few minutes back at the lobby.

"...Itsuki-san?" Kureha felt her tongue going numb as she was at a lost for words, but seeing the incoming threat, she raised her own Submachine Gun to returning the motion back to them.

The boy beside the pinkette also brought his handgun's sights to meet his eyes. "So..." He trailed off, the silence on the room getting more and more unbearable. "...What happens now? I suppose you two aren't kind enough to let a first-timer go pass this room without exchanging gunfire?"

At his half-hearted plea, Itsuki chuckled at Nanashi's attempt to let them go. "The fact that you two have managed to survive this long is already enough proof for us to be cautious against you. And considering this is a PvP match... I think we also have the rights to stop your advance," The heavy atmosphere continued, with both sides not taking action, one probably out of fear, but the other one out of simple amusement at their expense. "But... I suppose I can show some lenience... under a condition."

"...Condition?" Kureha repeated his words carefully. "And elaborate on your definition of lenience, please, Itsuki-san."

"Situated on the next room, is a particularly annoying monster that is halting our progress," He pointed to the steel door on the far side of the room. "Seeing that we are not equipped with heavy weapons at the moment, taking it down would prove to be a chore. That's why, I would like _you_ to kill them for me instead. Do this, and I can guarantee that you two will be spared from us, at least for just this encounter."

"And you expect a newbie with a starter pistol and another player armed with an SMG to fare better than you guys?" rebutted Kureha's long time male friend, bluffing about Kureha's lack of arsenal in the process. "And you expect us to just agree to your terms no problem? I mean, what's stopping you from killing us from behind our backs after we clear the room ahead?"

Itsuki gave a reassuring and understanding smile at their still hesitant stance on the argument. "I always. _Always_ , keep my word."

"Even now, you two should already consider yourselves lucky, it's rare that Itsuki-san's doing this on a whim," The other player beside Itsuki's side added his own opinion on the matter.

The two other players deduced that Itsuki wasn't telling them everything, seeing how he failed to answer Nanashi's first half of his question. "We just have to kill that one monster, right?" Kureha decided to speak up after the prolonged tranquility.

"Nothing more, but nothing less," Raising his arms for emphasis on his neutrality regarding the matter, Itsuki answered evenly.

"Then let's go, Nanashi, we have a monster to kill," Kureha lowered her Submachine Gun, and walked forward, gesturing her partner to do the same, to which he followed. The two players simply went pass the two, half expecting Itsuki to turn on his promises and shoot them without their knowledge, but the gunfire never really came.

Nanashi has the urge to turn his head around, but out of his own fear and hesitance, he couldn't seem to do it. Instead, he would opt to whisper to his partner regarding the matter. "You sure we can trust him? Something is seriously fishy about that guy."

As the door slid open, the only response he got back from the pinkette was a shrug, wordlessly giving him her reply that probably would sound like ' _only one way to find out_ ' if it was made audible. Meeting them on the next area was only but a single combat NPC, shaped in the form of a metallic spider with its head sensors seemingly jouting out from the center chassis. Four steel legs that looked reinforced and could repel small-arms fire, and from the earlier center chassis, it brandished what it seemed to be either a heavy machine gun, or a gatling gun that could fire energy rounds in quick succession without pause. Unlike their earlier encounter with the **_[Barrage Automatons]_** , this one bot seemed to be as perceptive as a normal human being, if not more, as it was instantly alerted and ready to unload its arsenal towards the incoming players.

Nanashi was expecting a world of hurt for the upcoming minutes as he raised his M1911 in that strange stance yet again.

But what he didn't really prepare for was the sound of something blasting right beside him, and a bright blue ball of pure energy projectile travelling towards the enemy in velocity, while slower than a normal bullet, was still too fast for the bot to dodge. When the charged projectile made contact with the center chassis of the spider-like robot, an explosion of white and blue particles shrouded the robot, with electricity and pure volatile energy spouting out from the point of impact, it sent shock waves echoing throughout the room, enough to produce a small quake that almost made the boy lose his footing. After lowering his hand from reflexively shielding his eyes, he could make out some things emerging from the smoke.

Or what's left of it, at least.

Just like that, he could see the monster's metal hull already ripped into pieces with severe burnt marks replacing its dull white paint. Its metal legs already strewn all over the place after being violently amputated and pushed away from their main body by the ensuing shock waves after the initial explosive contact. What was left of the quote-unquote ' _annoying monster_ ' was quickly swallowed by the same light that covered up its entire body, and then finally vanishing into a burst of pixels along with the dissipating smoke. The sight left Nanashi with his mouth only slightly agape, and a single roll of nervous sweat could be seen trickling down his forehead, this is knowing well that in real life, he was still situated in his cozy room, with the air-conditioner turned on.

He turned to face the pinkette, still resting her small rocket-launcher tube by her shoulder, and the fuse of such weapon still smoking from the sudden discharge. Her face has still neutral look to it.

Noticing the stare, she turned to face her friend. "...What?" She asked with a shrug.

Nanashi said nothing, he just kept eyeing her with a dumbfounded look.

"I wasn't taking any chances. Itsuki-san did say this is an annoying enemy, right?" Kureha added, feeling as if she was being accused by the look her friend gave her. "The less time we have to mope around the area, the better anyway."

"Indeed you're right, Kureha-san," Itsuki's voice erupted behind them. "Truth be told, I was expecting to have a rather enjoyable sight of the two of you working together as a team to take this thing down... less to say, I may just a little bit saddened."

The other male member of Itsuki's party finally also decide to add his own input. "And I as well. But still, we most certainly didn't expect you too pull out a launcher to blast it just like that. Can't say that I was expecting a spectacle, but for the room to be cleared this quick?" He spoke with mild amusement.

Kureha gave a wry smile at his opinion. "I constantly save up my rockets to use them at occasions like these. So why not? The sooner we take down the monster, the more time we can advance to loot the place."

Both players within Itsuki's team exchanged glances. "I suppose that's a good explanation as any," They walked pass the two friends into the next room. "As I've said, I won't go back on my promises. In fact, let us take point for the upcoming room. We'll clear out any hostiles if they appear, so now, we'll trust our backs to yours."

Nanashi snorted lightly. "Don't worry, even Kureha here is not dumb enough to piss off your fangirls. Wouldn't want them to send us death threats only after my first day here."

What followed was a hard nudge to his stomach, by none other than yours truly.

Itsuki laughed without looking back, his eyes set to the opening steel doors before the group of four, not noticing the violence that just happened behind them between the boy and the pinkette. "Oh, trust me when I say that the fan club thing was a bit on the unexpected side from my stay in the game," The way he said it seemed like he wasn't speaking such things to show off, but of genuine good humor.

Following the two much more experienced players to the next set of corridors, and walking the rest of the distance in silence, they finally arrived at a fork in the road, with each side leading up doors that could lead them into separate rooms.

"Well, I suppose this is where we should part ways," Itsuki declared, looking back at the two players who were following his party. "I don't need to remind you that our terms end here, yes? The next time we meet again, at least in this dungeon, we would unfortunately need to cross our swords, no more lenience or second chances. You two may pick a path, and we'll choose the other."

Kureha crooked her head lightly to her side. "Maybe you should take point for once, Nanashi. Who knows, maybe your luck is better than mine."

The boy snapped his eyes left and right, facing the two tall doors and eyeing them carefully. Inside his mind, he was also considering all the chances of them facing another battle. So far, even facing just one single battle against another player team, his own party of two was not faring well at all. Kureha has already spent two of her launcher's ammo, something that should probably be saved for the most urgent of situations only. While Nanashi himself still has an abundance of ammunition on his M1911, the gun was still not a workhorse that could tackle constant stream of players and bots alike. They were clearly not in a proper state to enter another combat.

But now he was left with a choice, with the other players waiting for his answer. If the layout was purely based on RNG, then both sides could face literally anything. Hell, the game could even mess with their luck and just have the fork in the road reemerging as one again in the near future, making an encounter basically unavoidable with Itsuki's party. In the end, it was a game of chances for either sides anyway, so lifting an unsure finger from his left, free hand, he pointed towards the corridor to the left, Kureha and the others following his choice of destination. His friend gave a shrug at his choice, while Itsuki's party remained still.

"Then we'll be taking the path to our right," Itsuki's companion announced their own route to take.

"I wish we could meet under more favorable circumstances," Itsuki sighed, the player started to rub his nose possibly out of frustration. "And I don't know if it's our luck, but every room we've been at, they're already swept clean by the Uncrowned Queen."

"Well... truth be told, the both us have only found a single ** _[Bullet Box]_** ourselves. It's almost like the entire floor is already looted from the start," Kureha admitted as well. "But you did threaten us earlier, so I'm not exactly gonna go and play nice, Itsuki-san. I would wish you two good luck on your time left in this dungeon, but I certainly won't," She said with a frown.

Itsuki kept that simple neutral smile on his face. "And we to you, Kureha-san, Nanashi-san."

And with that, the two parties departed on their merry and separate ways, with Kureha and Nanashi going to the left, while Ituski's squad simply went to the opposite side of the corridor with no more words exchanged between them. Once they were out of earshot, Nanashi can hear his friend sighing loudly. Probably just glad to be out of the predicament for once. As she walked, the girl stretched her arms upwards, and Nanashi wondered if that would actually work to alleviate them from sore muscles, considering they are still Full-Diving in VR, and are basically still just laying still on their mattresses or something of similar comfort in real life, just unmoving.

"Whew, glad we got that out of the way," Spoke Kureha after she was finished with her stretch. "Actually, even with the lack of loot, I'd say that everything went better than expected. Maybe it's my luck, maybe it's yours, but all things considered, Itsuki-san is still a GGO player, and in GGO, it's always shoot first, ask questions never. Still, we should probably still be careful from here on out."

Nanashi listened to her with his eyes scanning their surroundings, he was the one taking point after all. "But it'd be great if we can avoid any engagements too, though... our objective _WAS_ about getting the loot, right?"

"True, true."

That seemed to end their conversation, but for some reason, Nanashi wanted to press on for more. "So... uh," He feel the awkwardness rising slowly but surely between them. "How's life been treating your family IRL?"

Kureha glanced to her side and raised an index finger, almost touching the boy's lips to silence him. "The session's all recorded by the game. So no IRL talks now," She explained flatly, earning a look of realization from the boy. "But... after this, we can catch up, for old time's sake?"

"Yeah... I'd like that," As the last bit of the sentence left his tongue, the door before them finally opened, what was inside seemed to catch Nanashi's attention. "Oi, look at this."

The room was much more cramped than the earlier ones, at said premises itself was packed to the brim with some old, dusty crates, all stacked haphazardly and untidily all across the limited space of the room. On the furthest corner, was an active but idle console, while on the center was a circular platform, with four robotic arms spouting out from the ground, but the platform itself didn't look like a bot and one could deduce that it was a part of the room's background. If anything, everything about this room screamed storage area to them, much to the interest of Nanashi, and the obvious delight of Kureha. The girl immediately dashed forward, inspecting the room on her own, leaving Nanashi behind to catch up to her.

"Whoa, nice find!" Exclaimed the now energized girl, already skipping forward to the console. "Huh, let's see here..." She began punching in some things into the computer. "If there isn't a way forward, then surely there must be something akin to a loot in this area."

Nanashi kept his pace slow, taking in all the view from the abandoned storage and storing them deep into his brain. All the crates and boxes stacked within looked old, even ancient considering all the rust and dust they've collected. Some of them even looking so fragile that making a single contact with them would probably vaporize the containers right there and then. The boy decided to ignore Kureha's ramblings as she toyed around with the central terminal, opting to study his surroundings a bit more. So far, the place was littered in wide open corridors and rooms. He would say that the setting was likely to be a factory of sorts, but it also could be the interior of an ancient spaceship, considering the lore of the game.

"Okay, so how about this one right... here."

There was a chirp sounding off from the terminal, responding to that input, the central platform on the room seemed to activate.

The same platform Nanashi was stepping on.

"Oi, oi!" The new player cried out, panic slowly making its way back to him. "Hey, Kureha, the hell's happening here? What'd you do?"

The pinkette nearly jumped when she heard the panicked yelps coming from her friend. Turning her face back, she could see the male player's body slowly being engulfed by light, but it wasn't the same light that signified the end of one's life. It's the same one that seemed to shroud everyone who's entering a teleportation gate. "Oh crap, is this a one-way teleporter?" She mused to herself, trying to amend the situation by turning her attention back to the set of computers behind her. Her lack of understanding regarding the machinery however certainly didn't help the situation. "H-hey, Nanashi, listen! This is only a teleporter, you're gonna be just fine, you hear me?" Her voice sounded worried herself. "I'll be right over there-"

That was the last thing Nanashi would witness and hear, as his vision was blinded by a bright teleportation light.

And the next thing he saw, was of another room. This one room didn't seem to have any teleporter exit like the other lobbies, so it was indeed a one-way teleporter. The room itself was like the other ones he'd been through. Large, empty, but this time, just a tad bit different. It appeared like he was transported to a unique storage room. With different wall textures and even some large window panes that overlooked the sandy wasteland outside. The light coming from the orange-colored sky and sun piercing through said windows. On the far side of the room, sat a large, human-sized tube with a reflective cover that like the teleporter before him, just laid there inactive. For the most part, this new storage area didn't look to be touched by any human players, at least as of yet.

But still, when his thought processes fully came back to him, Nanashi would realize that he was now truly alone.

"...Well, shit."

* * *

 **Fatal Bullet**

 **An Alternate Novelization**

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

I suck at making fight scenes. I know.


End file.
